Baseball Game Preview: Normal Community Ironmen vs. O'Fallon Panthers

The Normal Community Ironmen will face off against the O'Fallon Panthers at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Normal Community comes in on 20 and O'Fallon on three.

Normal Community is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They never let Bradley-Bourbonnais get on the board and left with a 2-0 win. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Ironmen have posted against the Boilermakers since May 18, 2019.

O'Fallon not only won on Saturday, but they posted their biggest win since May 6th (when they won 11-1). They blew past Belleville East 14-5.

Sam McCollum made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs off three hits (and not a single walk). He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in 13 consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-4 with three stolen bases and two runs. Those three stolen bases gave him a new career-high.

In other batting news, O'Fallon got a massive performance out of Brayden Robertson, who got on base in four of his five plate appearances with one home run, three runs, and three RBI. That's the most RBI Robertson has posted since back in April. The team also got some help courtesy of Camden Cox, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, two stolen bases, and three runs.

O'Fallon lost a few balls and finished the game with four home runs. That's the most home runs they've managed all season.

Normal Community's win bumped their record up to 34-4. As for O'Fallon, their victory bumped their record up to 24-10.